Too Close a Call
"So, er," Ben fiddled with his bedsheets nervously. "...Thanks for joining me in my rehabilitation...?"
Rowan looked at him with a mix of mild anger and disappointment. "If you're going to crack a joke, at least be smooth about it."
Ben pouted. "I tried, okay?"
"Rowan! I heard you were up," Maya chirped as she entered the hospital wing, waving the note from Madam Pomfrey. "How are you feeling?"
Rowan groaned. "Like I got run over by the Knight Bus."
"But still good enough to critique my attempt at humour," Ben added.
"It was a very sorry attempt," said Rowan flatly. "Your delivery was awful."
Maya chuckled. "And what about your memory? Having any trouble remembering anything?"
Rowan thought for a moment, and then shook her head. "Nope. It's all crystal clear."
"Are you sure?"
Rowan raised an eyebrow. "I'm absolutely certain. Should I give an exhaustive record of every single—"
"No thanks." Ben quickly cut her off. He still seemed quite downtrodden about his failed humour attempt.
Maya nodded in satisfaction. "Good to know you're okay, Rowan. Oh, and I brought you a copy of Wendelin's Weirdness since you haven’t read it yet."
"Ooh! Thanks, Maya." Rowan accepted the book, brightening like a newly-replaced lightbulb. "Wendelin's one of my favourite witches from the Middle Ages."
"Ahem... Now that you're both here, are you going to tell me what happened?" Ben asked. "Knowing the two of you, I doubt it was a freak accident."
Maya seated herself between their beds. "You're bloody right it wasn't. We went back to the east corridor on the fifth floor to see if Auror Shacklebolt had missed anything. And..." She lowered her voice in case Madam Pomfrey or Chiara was listening. "We found the Vanished Stairs. They led us to a Cursed Vault, the Vault of Ice, but we weren't able to get in."
"The door attacked us with Freezing Spells," said Rowan. "I was knocked out cold."
She looked at them expectantly, but her pun went unnoticed and ignored.
Ben gaped at the Slytherins. "Why in the world would you go in?" he asked faintly.
"It's my fault," said Maya. She hung her head, letting the brim of her hat fall over her eyes like a visor. "I thought I could find clues about my brother..."
"Don't blame yourself, Maya." Rowan shook her head. "Anyone would have gotten excited after that vision. I certainly did."
Ben blinked his large eyes. "You had another vision, Maya?"
"I had three visions." Maya held up three fingers for emphasis.
"...I'm afraid to ask what you saw," Ben muttered.
Maya ignored that. "My brother found the Vault of Ice with two of his friends, Duncan and Olivia. He saw the same message that I did in the trophy room."
"'The Ice Knight stands guard beyond the Vanished Stairs,'" Rowan said helpfully. "Followed up with something about keys and stealing hearts."
"Yup." Maya nodded, making her dark brown curls bounce. "Jacob must have deciphered more than we did. And he was planning to tell me about the Vault of Ice, but he never did. It's almost like the incident never happened."
She decided not to mention the last vision.
"At any rate, we were in over our heads," said Maya. "We basically went in there with nothing but our wands and nightgowns. We'll need to be more prepared when we go back."
"If we go back..."
Rowan mumbled the words so quietly, Maya's sensitive ears managed to only barely pick them up.
The short girl stared at her best friend. She didn't understand.
"What do you mean, 'if we go back'?"
Rowan's hair fell around her face like a silky black curtain. The air in the room seemed to stagnate.
"It's just... Confronting that door was the closest I've ever come to dying," said Rowan. "I want to help you, Maya, but I'm not... I'm not strong enough. I can plan, I can prepare... My strength is in theory, not praxis. I'm only holding you back."
Maya bit her lip. She hadn't been expecting this, and now she wanted to slap herself for it. Of course Rowan would be less excited now that she'd had a near-death experience.
"That's... alright. You just focus on resting, Rowan. I'll keep doing what I can to prepare for my next trip to the Cursed Vault."
Rowan still wouldn't look her in the eye.
"I'm sorry, Maya..."
Maya wanted to say that there was no need to apologise, that she understood Rowan's reluctance, that everything would be alright. But for some reason, the words just wouldn't come out.
The bell rang. Maya jumped. It was time for class already?!
Wait, what class did she have next?!
"Herbology!" Chiara cried from the potions cabinet. She floundered around, snatching her things as her yellow and black scarf trailed behind her.
Herbology. Slytherin had Herbology with Hufflepuff. Chiara was a Hufflepuff.
"Hurry, Maya!" Rowan shouted in panic. "You're already late!"
Maya didn't argue. She wished she could have spoken with her friends for longer, but she ran for the greenhouses in a frenzy. They weren't far from the hospital wing, but running in so many layers of clothes was difficult. She barrelled in just as Professor Sprout was finishing scolding Chiara.
"Always remember to keep track of the time, Miss Lobosca. Oh, Miss Shafiq! I assume you just came back from the hospital wing as well?"
Professor Sprout had her hands on her hips, clenching a trowel a little too tightly for Maya's liking.
"Sorry, madam." Maya apologised quickly. Several students snickered at her.
"That'll be five points from both Hufflepuff and Slytherin," said the Head of Hufflepuff. Despite her jovial and breezy tone, everyone except Maya and Chiara groaned loudly. Neither of the girls protested, allowing the class to start without further ado.
Professor Sprout, who was even plumper and rounder thanks to her thick winter robes, bounced from table to table as she demonstrated how to fireproof the magical plants and fungi. The students soon followed her example, feeding Fire Protection Potion to the flora with varying levels of care. Merula was barely even trying.
Having to waddle back and forth between the plants and the potion supply generated a lot of hustle and bustle (and the occasional scream of a Screechsnap), providing opportunity for students to gossip or slack off. Maya noticed that Tonks was doing the latter, shuffling around under her cloak while her Leaping Toadstool waited for its dose of Fire Protection Potion.
The Metamorphmagus had rolled up one of her sleeves and was clutching her arm tight. Her face contorted as if in pain as the skin of her forearm shifted from colour to colour. Maya snuck a glance and, to her surprise, saw that Tonks had a curse mark stretching from the middle of her forearm to her wrist.
Tonks's skintone-shifting became faster and faster. Her arm went from pasty to tanned to spectral, but the curse mark remained stubbornly black. "It's not going away! Why did I have to trip on the ice..." She'd accidentally turned her face pallid and sickly in panic.
"It'll fade in a few hours," said Chiara soothingly. She was right—Maya knew it because her curse marks had faded too.
Tonks didn't seem very satisfied, but she hastily pulled her sleeve down as Professor Sprout came to inspect their progress.
When the professor wasn't listening, Maya filled in her curious Hufflepuff friends on what had happened in the fifth floor corridor. The news of a Cursed Vault's discovery was enough to blow the curse mark out of Tonks's mind.
However, Maya once again neglected to tell them about the last vision.
"First Ben, and now Rowan..." Tonks whispered. "Maybe you'll go into rehab and complete the set, Maya."
Penny gave her a light smack. "Don't say that, Tonks. You'll jinx it." She fireproofed an Alihotsy, her movements sharp with irritation. "...I can't believe you left me out again," she hissed. "You promised you'd bring me along."
"Seriously? You're mad about that?" Maya asked incredulously. "Did you miss the part about almost dying?"
Penny gave Maya a side eye, her plaits swinging like the Whomping Willow's branches. The faint clinking of flasks and phials could be heard from somewhere in her robes. "If you'd brought me with you, maybe that wouldn't have happened."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry... But in our defence, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing," said Maya. "I promise I'll bring you with me next time." Especially since Rowan's not coming... "Are you sure you can sneak away from all your friends?"
Tonks's hair turned shiny blonde like Penny's. "I'll cover for her while she's gone! No one's going to notice."
Maya wasn't so sure about that, but Penny beamed. "You won't regret it, Maya! When are we going?"
"Whoa, don't get too ahead of yourselves," said Maya. Their Hufflepuff energy could be really overwhelming at times. That, and Maya's fatigue seemed to be catching up to her. Penny and Tonks's voices echoed in her ears, giving her quite a headache. "Let's talk more after class..."
Maya let her mind wander as she fed a Fanged Geranium, thinking about her brother and the Vault of Ice. If only she could See what else had happened, or how to steal the Ice Knight's heart, or Jacob's interpretation of the message, or where Duncan and Olivia were, or why Jacob had to run away...
The class was especially chattery that day. Maya was used to tuning out voices, but it was more difficult than usual. Everything seemed to be echoing.
"Madam Pomfrey's a bit crass at the moment. She had to cancel all of her plans for the Christmas holiday."
"All of these plants are going to die anyway..."
"Why are robes called robes when only the top part is called a robe?"
"Because people are bad at naming things, Barnaby."
But then, things started getting odd.
Images of plants flashed before Maya's eyes. Given that she was currently in Herbology class, that should have been normal, except there weren't any Shrivelfigs or Bouncing Bulbs on her table. It was like the pictures had been projected onto her goggles for a split second before disappearing. The strange events didn't end there—aside from the foetid odour of dragon dung, the sweetness of Sugar Quills was also mixed into the floral, earthy scent of the greenhouse.
"Ow!" Maya yelped. Her hand had wavered into the Fanged Geranium's biting range, and the flower had eagerly sunk its teeth into her gloved finger.
"You alright, Maya?" asked Tonks.
Maya nodded, checking her finger for signs of blood. She had managed to free her hand, but the geranium refused to stop chewing the glove. After getting scolded by Professor Sprout for nearly uprooting the plant, she forcefully pried the faux dragonhide out of the flower's mouth, ignoring the apparent schadenfreude of her classmates.
Echoing voices continued to surround Maya throughout the rest of the class, but they were the least of her problems. Her senses kept sensing things that weren't there. She ignored the discomfort, driving it out of her mind while she waited for the chance to speak with her Hufflepuff friends.
"So what's the plan?" Penny asked immediately.
Maya ignored the echo. "For now, just focus on getting ready. We'll need to dress warmly, learn the Fire-Making Spell, and brew lots of Fire Protection Potions. And we'll need a way to carry those potions too..."
She thought of her mokeskin bag and how it had stiffened up in the unfamiliar atmosphere of the Vanished Stairs. Maya had relied on that little bag for so long, trusting it to stop bullies or nasty reporters from stealing her belongings. It was like she had been betrayed. Now she needed another way to bring potions with her, and her robe pockets weren't going to do the trick.
"Well, I could teach you the Fire Protection Potion," Penny suggested. "But I doubt we'll start working on the Fire-Making Spell until after the Christmas holiday..."
"Yeah, Quirrell's a bit of a stickler when it comes to safety rules, isn't he?" Tonks said glumly.
Penny swayed, and another faint clink came from within her robes. Maya looked down and saw an array of glinting phials strapped to the blonde's waist.
"Actually, I just had an idea..."
"It's a good thing you had a spare strap for your pouch," said Penny. "This'll make an excellent potion belt! And a detachable one too." She deftly worked with a needle and thread, sewing strips of fabric into various potion holders.
Maya watched in amazement. "Wow, you sure have a lot of talents." The blonde Hufflepuff was full of surprises. Maya was sewing with her, but Penny was much faster at the job.
Penny giggled. "Actually, I just had a good teacher. I learned everything from my sister, Bea. She's the one who's really good at crafts. She even makes her own dolls!"
"Wait, how old is your sister?" Ben asked.
"She's only eight!" Penny chirped. "...But she didn't seem very happy about me staying for the holidays, so I need to think of a good Christmas gift to make it up to her."
Maya tapped her bottom lip. "I've been working on a batch of treacle fudge in my spare time. And I've memorised Mom's apple strudel recipe, so I could whip up something in the kitchens."
"Really? That'd be brilliant!"
Tonks turned pink with excitement. "I can have some too, right?"
"Of course! Everyone can have some!"
"Speaking of which, how's that fudge coming along?" Rowan asked.
Maya clammed up.
"...That's what I thought."
"It's not that bad," Maya said defensively. "It's just... I'm starting to doubt Hagrid's advice. Eggnog, peppermint, and cinnamon are fine on their own, but I don't think they should be going into treacle fudge."
Given that Ben didn't want to go to Fawley's and Rowan was still stuck in the hospital wing, Maya and her friends had all agreed to stay for the Christmas holidays. They could use the time to prepare, brewing Fire Protection Potions and learning different spells. The problem was that the Fire-Making Spell, a spell for which unsupervised practice was banned, was the most important spell of all. Yekaterina had some very detailed notes that would no doubt be helpful if Maya could just find a place to train.
"Alright!" Penny cheered as she attached one last holder to the belt. "Here, Maya, try it on!"
Maya attached the potion belt to her mokeskin bag, adjusting the buckles so that everything was secure. It felt a little odd having her bag strapped to both her shoulder and waist. She was more used to it just swinging around.
"Looking cool, Maya!" Tonks gave her a thumbs up. "Oh, I'm actually quite jealous..."
"Hmm..." Penny didn't seem satisfied. "Wait a minute." She pulled out her wand and said, "Colovaria!"
The mismatched potion holders all turned the same uniform shade of wine red.
"There! That's much better," said Penny proudly. "If you're going to play Quidditch, you might as well look fabulous while doing it!"
"Pardon?" Maya asked. Rowan and Ben also reacted with confusion. "We're not playing Quidditch. If anything, we're going curse-breaking."
Tonks snorted. "You really need to pay more attention to the world around you, Maya. The phrase has been in fashion ever since Andre Egwu pointed out his teammates' socks."
Ben winced. He still wasn't over how much he had missed. Maya, on the other hand, couldn't care less about what was trending in Hogwarts now that she knew where the Vault of Ice was.
"Anyway, mates, it's getting late," she said. "Why don't we get some rest and continue our studies tomorrow?" Penny and Tonks's voices still echoed, and it was giving her quite a migraine. For some reason, Rowan and Ben's voices were clear as always.
"Sounds good," said Rowan, immediately reaching for her copy of Wendelin's Weirdness. "I've still got four hundred and thirty-two pages to get through!"
Not having Rowan by her side in class made Maya realise that she had been taking her best mate for granted. If Ben's absence was weird, Rowan's was just otherworldly and not in a good way. Herbology was the most bearable class, thanks to Penny and Tonks, but outside of the greenhouses, Maya had to deal with her classmates all by her lonesome.
"Oi, Shafiq. I haven't seen much of you outside of class."
"You're right, Merula!" Maya said with the most blatantly fake cheeriness she could muster. "It's been a wonderful change of pace, so why don't we keep it that way?"
Merula ignored her. "Now that Copper's been found, I assume you've turned your attention back to the Cursed Vaults."
"Maybe I have. Maybe I haven't. Either way, what's it to you?" Maya asked, trying not to glance at Barnaby Lee looming over her. She'd previously overpowered Merula with her physical strength, but the chances of that happening with Barnaby in the mix were close to zero.
"I've been investigating the Cursed Vaults myself," said Merula. "You wouldn't believe the things I've discovered..."
"You're right. I don't believe you actually found anything. Now get out of my way before I cast a Tickling Charm on you."
Merula blinked. She glanced down at Maya's hornbeam wand pointed directly at her stomach. She snickered.
"Not bad, Shafiq. Wish I could say the same about your friends. I heard Khanna ended up in the hospital wing trying to help you find the Vault of Ice. She probably would have died if you ran into..." she leaned in and lowered her voice, "...the Ice Knight."
So she does know something, Maya thought. Even so... "Don't pretend to care about my friends, Merula."
Merula rolled her eyes. "Oh, I don't care about you or your friends, but I do care about the Cursed Vaults. Though not as much as your mental brother. Speaking of which, you must be setting some kind of record, Shafiq."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"First your brother, then Copper, and now Khanna." Merula counted them off her long, pale fingers. "That's three people you've lost."
Maya's amber eyes narrowed. "Ben and Rowan are fine, and Jacob is missing, not dead. I just have to find him."
"Like everything else in your life, Shafiq, your search for the Vaults and your brother is doomed." Merula sighed. "But out of the goodness of my heart, I will make a deal with you."
"Right. The 'goodness of your heart'."
Merula ignored Maya's sarcasm. "I am working with someone to find the Cursed Vaults. Someone who knows where they are, what they contain, and how they are protected. Someone who knows what happened to your brother."
Maya's eyes widened. Normally, she'd have brushed off Merula's words as a blatant lie. But even if "the Vault of Ice" was a lucky, educated guess, "the Knight" was too specific.
Merula must have noticed, because she chuckled darkly. "It's unlikely given your ineptitude, but if you ever open a Cursed Vault, I will let you meet this person... in exchange for the treasure inside."
Is she lying? She clearly knows SOMETHING. How much does she know? Does she know more than me? Questions flew through Maya's mind like a flock of frenzied seagulls hunting for chips. Who could Merula be working with?
Duncan Ashe? Olivia Green?
"Just know that my offer is open," said Merula. She was clearly enjoying Maya's reaction to the prospect of such tantalising information. "Barnaby! We're leaving!"
"Right!"
The echo of Barnaby's answer reminded Maya of where she was going, and why. She had been on her way to meet Professor Trelawney to talk about her visions.
Maya's new theory was that the 'echo' she kept hearing was simply just her hearing the words before they were spoken. At any rate, it was giving her a headache, and she could really use the Divination professor's help in making it stop. While the ability to see into the past or future was a wonderful thing, Maya needed to gain control over it as quickly as possible. If not, it would just be detrimental.
Maya tried to push Merula's offer to the back of her mind (emphasis on 'tried') and set off back in the direction of the North Tower. She climbed up the silver ladder and greeted Professor Trelawney, who luckily seemed to be fully sober today.
"Welcome, dear!" Professor Trelawney said, sounding very happy despite her mystifying manner. "The tea leaves foretold your arrival, so I prepared some tea."
"Thank you, Professor." Maya sipped the tea from the blue-patterned china cup. Thankfully, it was still on the warmer side. "Hmm? Oh, it's a new blend!"
"Astounding sense of taste as usual," said Professor Trelawney. She seated herself in a soft armchair and drank some tea, gazing at Maya through her spectacles expectantly. "Well? I know you didn't come here to taste-test."
Maya downed the tea as fast as possible. It wasn't usually how she drank tea, but the Curse of Ice was brutal. She didn't want to waste any warmth, so she held the now-empty cup in her hand as she explained recent events to the professor. Naturally, she omitted the discovery and location of the Vanished Stairs.
"How fascinating... Asking questions which prompt answers... And you saw such detailed visions! How did it feel, Miss Shafiq?"
"Er..." Maya pondered for a moment. "Kind of like swimming?" It was somewhere in between that and Jacob dunking her head-first into the water as a prank.
"Like swimming, you say... Interesting... Very interesting..."
Maya watched the professor's curious reaction for a few seconds before continuing. "Anyway, I was hoping I could learn to control it, Professor Trelawney. Seeing more of those visions would be helpful, but I could do without all the... weird stuff." She hadn't told her friends about said weird stuff yet, as she didn't want them to worry.
Professor Trelawney smiled. "The Inner Eye is not something that can be trained overnight, Miss Shafiq. Every Seer has their own set of methods, and they must find it themselves. Of course, I will help you in every way I can, but keep in mind that progress will not come swiftly. ...Though I could teach you in more detail if you take my class next year."
"I absolutely want to take your class, Professor!" Maya exclaimed. "But... this issue is kinda time-sensitive."
"Patience, my dear... I understand that your Inner Eye is placing you in a state of befuddlement, but you are entering the age where constant confusion is all but expected."
Maya didn't quite understand, but she listened closely.
"The mind and soul is not easy to understand, Miss Shafiq. Sometimes, the heart will tell us conflicting things. It is a natural part of growing up. For example, I hear you agreed to stay for the holidays. Despite how everyone is leaving the castle, and how much you must wish to see your mother, you still chose to stay with your friends."
Maya's shoulders slumped. This again.
When Clair Kowalski had recovered Maya had thought it was because she had found hope. That Jacob would come back. It turned out to be the opposite. Maya's mother wasn't waiting for him anymore. She'd accepted that he was gone. In deciding that she could and would live with that, she'd given up on him.
But Maya couldn't do that.
She couldn't give up.
"...And you even decided to tolerate the presence of Rita Skeeter!"
Maya blinked. "What?"
"Oh, did Professor Snape not tell you?" asked Professor Trelawney, seemingly quite mystified. "I'm sorry, dear... You see, Rita Skeeter has agreed to come to Hogwarts for an... investigative report."
Investigative report. Rita Skeeter. She wrote the article on Jacob. She investigated Jacob. She might know more about him. She might know more about the Cursed Vaults.
She might know more about Duncan and Olivia.
"That's... that's perfect!" Maya exclaimed. "Thank you so much for telling me, Professor Trelawney!"
Professor Trelawney stared. Clearly, this was not what she had been expecting.